below: More words, this time “It’s a beautiful day in the neighbourhood.” A quote from the TV show, ‘Mr. Rogers Neighbourhood’ along with a picture of Daniel Striped Tiger, a hand puppet from the same show.

below: Shafia Shaik working on her mural. The word GLOW has been cut off. The finished work was signed as EWOK project standing for Equity for Women of (K)olour.

below: A mural by muisca. The finished mural has green leaves and vines on both sides of the face.

The Gardens of St. Clair is a mural project in an alley behind St. Clair West between Prescott and Blackthorn Avenues, just west of the railway tracks. There are lots of roses and other flowers as well as butterflies and birds.

below: A purple pansy and a luminescent insect with a shiny blue body. The dark green vine motif runs throughout the project.

below: This is the side of a building in the lane. Around the corner of the building, the horizontal lines continue and the word Bellwoods is incorporated into it.

below: A fence is in the way which makes taking pictures of this mural a bit difficult but here is the north end of it. Mickey Mouse and his big white gloves is punching Bugs Bunny. This is the work of Los Angeles artist Matt Dondek (@gondekdraws) who calls himself a deconstructive popartist.

below: This is recognizable as being about the Simpsons. It looks like a character from the Simpsons but which one? Spikey hair like Maggie’s but in Marge’s colour. A bit of brown hair like who? Regardless of who he looks like, he surely represents the Simpsons. He’s got a partially eaten donut in one hand and although you can’t see it in this pic, he’s got a Duff’s beer in the other. This was a collaboration between Matt Gondek and Paul Jackson.

below: The next sections of the wall are Calvin Hobbes themed and was painted by Sadar (@blazeworks) and Cepsr.

below: Spaceman Spliff

below: An angry (or scheming?) Calvin and devious looking Hobbes with Cepsr written large in between them.

The summer of the heat continues into August. It’s still hot and humid. But it was also the long August weekend, Simcoe Day or something like that, so there was lots happening around the city.

I went searching for breezes and I walked on the shady side of the street as much as possible, often as the drops of sweat ran down my back. A few stops in air conditioned stores (indoor window shopping) and a cold drink break or two made the days bearable. It helped that, as usual, there was lots to see!

below: Be curious … and stay curious.

below: Jumping skate boarders at Dundas and Bathurst

below: Casimir Street mural on Dundas (near Bathurst)

below: Sitting by the pool

below: A shady spot for reading.

below: A front yard full of tall yellow flowers

below: Not everyone has a green thumb. A rose is still a rose even in death.

below: Sitting in the painted window, Graffiti Alley. It looked like they were filming a music video. I’m not too sure what they thought of me (I didn’t think that I was disturbing them, long lens used).

below: A quiet spot for a cigarette.

below: Red hot.

below: An old mattress and head board lean against the side of a house. Great juxtaposition here as the mural is called ‘Lust’

below: Jelly window on Queen West – What is a modern doughnut? Especially one spelled the old fashioned way? The store was closed, so it’s still a mystery. Beautiful painting on the door.

below: Cycling in the jungle. I say ‘jungle’ because I see the lion and think “King of the jungle” but lions don’t live in the jungle so maybe I need to rethink that caption. Cyclist as prey? Bikes on safari?

below: Prince is now at Kensington Market. A purple Prince.

below: Graffiti in Kensington. Frowning while watching them fight. Little black figures with rifles. Are they angels that are shooting back or devils?

below: Reflections and lots of stuff including the painted lady in the House of Energy, Augusta Avenue. Life.

below: Death. How many skulls in the window?

below: Lots of smiles

I’ll be smiling more once the temperatures cool. I think that it’s been hot long enough that I can complain about it – perhaps even long for winter? How Canadian of me! In the meantime, as long as there is shade I’ll keep walking (and sweating!).

There is no theme to this blog post. It’s just a description of some of the things that I saw as I walked down Bathurst Street the other day after taking the 512 streetcar to St. Clair West station. In a lot of ways its like other busy Toronto streets, some houses, a few corner stores, and an alley or two along the way. A little bit of architecture and a little bit of history round out the story.

At St. Clair West and Bathurst, the northeast corner remains vacant. About four or five years ago there was a gas station and car wash on this corner. St. Clair West subway station is just to the east, just beyond the trees on the right hand side.

below: I went looking for an old photo of this corner and this is what I found. It’s from 1924. If the streetcar’s destination is Caledonia, then it is going westward. In 1924, St. Clair was the northern edge of the city and very little development had occurred here. It is interesting to note that the streetcar tracks came first, then the development. In addition, I’d love to be able to read the sign about dogs but the resolution of the photo is not good enough. An ad? A sign saying no dogs allowed? Or something else?

below: Of course, no vacant lot remains that way for long. At the moment, three 30 storey towers joined with a 6 or 7 storey podium has been proposed for the site but it is still in the re-zoning and planning stages. The light brown building to the left is St. Michael’s College School (boys school).

below: New development on the southeast corner of this intersection is almost complete. People have moved into the units above while the finishing touches are put on the lower retail floors. Developments like this are all over the city. Developments that look great (maybe?) on paper but are lackluster and banal at street level.

below: As I walked south on Bathurst, this mural caught my eye.

Words written beside the mural:“Long before concrete and steelPunctuated the landscape The land was pure and natural This mural acknowledges and honors 13 trees and 21 medicinal plants that have thrived here since time immemorial.”

The mural was funded by Toronto’s Start program (street art) and Na’Ma’Res Sagatay, a residence for indigenous men that is nearby.

I will admit that the main reason that I was walking in this area is because I wanted to check out the new public artwork that I’ve read about at Bathurst and Vaughan. It is “Three Points Where Two Lines Meet” by Christian Giroux and Daniel Young and apparently there is some controversy about it.

below: For those who don’t know that intersection, it is V-shaped. This photo shows the approach to the intersection from the north, on Vaughan. I took this photo because my first reaction to the scene was “Ugly. Ugly is what Toronto does”. From this angle the sculpture gets lost in the visual noise.

Cities have rules and regulations for public art. It needs to be weatherproof and graffiti-proof. It can’t block the view of drivers and pedestrians. No sharp edges or structures that people might hurt themselves on – note the two black poles are to prevent people from hitting their heads.

From Giroux & Young’s website: “Taking its form from the orphaned triangular site on which it sits, this artwork produces a new urban room by combining a multicoloured truss structure, the triangular plot of wild grasses it encloses, and an encircling sidewalk thats acts as a podium and plinth. Located between the converging energies of uptown and downtown, the structure densifies an intersection already clotted with utilities and challenges established forms of urbanism and spatial representation in Toronto.” Think of that what you will. While you’re thinking, you can check the website for more photos and information.

below: An interesting (unique?) roofline on what turns out to be The Occult Shop. I made one mistake – I neglected to cross the street to go inside and find out just what one can buy here.

below: These people can still be seen in the space above the doorway at 1358 Bathurst.

Continuing south on Bathurst, as you go downhill towards Davenport Road, there is a retaining wall beside the sidewalk on the west side. This wall was painted back in October 2013. The city paid $23,000 to two Brooklyn NY street artists (Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller, together known as Faile) who designed the mural and in turn paid other artists to paint it.

The mural is quite long and I only have a few pictures of bits and pieces of it.

below: Apparently Davenport Road is considered to be one of Toronto’s oldest roads. It follows the base of a ridge and provided a route between the Humber River in the west and the Don River in the east.

below: There is a park on the northwest corner of Bathurst and Davenport, The Tollkeeper’s Park. The old house, the Tollkeeper’s Cottage, is now a museum run by The Community History Project. It is open on Saturday afternoons (and some Sundays during the summer)

below: And across the road is Tollkeeper’s Lane. There are chairs everywhere in this city not usually as comfy looking as these.

below: An old Comet parked in the alley

below: Tomatoes and other vegetables growing in a front yard.

below: A hand, part of an Elicser mural. This mural, which is on both sides of the railway underpass just north of Dupont, is still there. Photos can be seen in a blog post from Nov 2014 (Yikes! Have I been blogging that long?!).

There are a few remnants of a more industrial past in the area near the railway tracks.

below: Another door – I doubt that it’s open now, or that it ever will be again.

below: These windows, and the house too, probably won’t be here much longer either.

below: A very standard row of semi-divided houses; a common sight. Hundreds (thousands?) of these were built around the city.

below: And a not so usual semi.

below: A touch of art deco.

below: Slight larger houses, with turrets even! (or is there another name for this architectural element?)

below: This is part of Coopers Hawk Lane which is just south of Dupont.

July is still hot and still humid. Not complaining though – it’s just part of my excuse as to why I haven’t posted much recently. Yesterday morning I managed to get myself out the door around 7:30 so I could walk comfortably – without drowning in sweat.

below: Getting ready to walk.

I followed the morning light but still trying to stay away from places that are too familiar. The following pictures are in no particular order.

below: With hands on hips, in an alley near Queen & John.

below: Vincent Van Gogh has taken up a position on Dundas Street across from the AGO. This 8′ x 8′ sculpture sits in front of the Mayberry Fine Art gallery. It is the work of Saskatchewan artist Joe Fafard who recently had an exhibit at that gallery. Fafard has other works in the city – he is the artist that produced “The Pasture” which is the seven life-sized bronze cows outside TD Centre. I don’t have a photo of the cows for this blog post, but if you don’t know the piece (or want to see it again), here is a link to an article about them.

below: A large flower in an alley doorway.

below: Beside the flower is a black and blue butterfly.

below: A heart bursting with colour on Cayley Lane.

below: Black face, white face. What emoji face are these?

below: Harriet Boulton Smith is the ceremonial name for the section of John Street between Queen Street West and Stephanie Street. Harriet Smith was the last owner of “The Grange” and Grange Park. When she died in 1910, she left her home and seven acres of land to the Art Museum of Toronto (AMT). The site is now the home of the Art Gallery of Ontario. She also bequeathed the family art collection to the AMT. This section of John Street was once the driveway to the Grange.

below: One of my favorite windows. Sunday was the day of the French vs Croatia soccer/football World Cup game and there was a group of France supporters gathering on Peter Street to watch the game. Apparently the party after the game, celebrating France’s victory, spilled out onto the street afterwards but unfortunately I missed it.

below: Old rusty metal barrels and butterflies.

below: The ice cream “mane” is still there. I frequently walk down an alley and wonder if I’ve ever been this way before… and then I spot an old friend and recognize where I am. That was the case when I spotted the ice cream guy (mane? why mane?). I think he dates from 2014.

below: Same alley as the ice cream man, perhaps the same vintage originally? The white swirls and the ‘love’ came after I think.

below: 24 hour public parking on the large sign, private parking on the small pink one but no one’s parking there anyhow.

below: Large mural behind Queen Street West (south side) featuring queens of different sorts – cards, chess and people at the minimum. “Queen Street West” designed and painted by Christiano De Araujo near the end of 2017.

below: Looking south on Soho Street towards Queen. On the right is the new Mountain Equipment Coop store under construction.

The first thing that happened on my walk was that I was yelled at by the woman inside this ‘tent’. She obviously didn’t like the camera in my hand so she screamed how was stalking her and harassing her. So I took a picture.

Not the best way to start a walk. Grump. Grump. But it could have been the heat and humidity….

Or maybe because it was the day that Doug Ford officially became premier of Ontario.

Or maybe because someone has littered Graffiti Alley with numerous stencils of this kind…. this is the largest.

Mood – it certainly affects the way you look at the world. Grump. Grump.
Then along comes a little lovebot to make you smile.